lahta

LA CityView Channel 35 debuted “Preparing for a Career in Hospitality,” on March 7, 2018, a
6-minute video sponsored by EWDD highlighting how aspiring chefs can receive culinary training
through the City of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Department and the Los Angeles
Hospitality Training Academy (LAHTA). The video includes testimonials from a successful
LAHTA graduate who now works in the kitchen at the Sheraton Gateway LAX, along with
interviews from executive chefs at area hotels and the Staples Center outlining opportunities in
LA’s growing hospitality industry. “Culinary arts is particularly exciting because it has no
boundaries on age. Young or old, you are able to work in culinary arts,” said EWDD General Manager Jan Perry, who was also featured in the video. Jan praised EWDD partner LAHTA for being a

An LAHTA Culinary Apprenticeship student practices her knife training by julienning carrots, an important professional kitchen skill

tremendous partner and for providing low-income individuals free-of-charge hands on training for
jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry, which is one of the largest employment sectors in Los Angeles. Hospitality, which provides more than 355,000 jobs throughout the region, is expected to grow, with an estimated nearly 19,000 jobs to be added this year. EWDD and the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board (WDB) provide grant financing to LAHTA, who acts as an intermediary to train WorkSource Center participants for jobs in the hospitality industry. As part of the video, LAHTA instructor Chef Mitchell Frieder led a cooking demonstration of what LAHTA students learn with 12-year-old chef prodigy Zion Otaño, who was featured in Man vs. Chief: Chef Showdown on the FYI network. “We teach all the basic culinary techniques in terms of braising, sautéing, frying, working with all kinds of different foods,” Mitchell said. “More importantly is how to handle one’s self on the cook’s line to work with speed and efficiency to produce meal after meal consistently, to be an excellent line cook at one of the properties where we place them.” The culinary training continues at the Southeast Los Angeles WorkSource Center, run by EWDD partner Watts Labor Community Action
Committee, where a class of 14 students recently held an LAHTA Culinary Apprenticeship Dinner
Buffet on March 6, 2018. The buffet, prepared by LAHTA’s current Culinary Apprenticeship
Program students, featured a menu of poached, chilled salmon, coq au vin, sautéed flounder,
chicken fricassee, Korean kalbi jim, braised sweet and sour pork, and tasty reuben and Italian
sub sandwiches. The students, who receive support services from EWDD’s Boyle Heights,
Watts/LA and Wilshire Metro WorkSource Centers, served the gourmet buffet to practice
preparing food for large banquets and events. One student, whose previous job in the kitchen
included “preparing hundreds of rice balls,” proudly showed the vegetables he prepared for the
Poule au Pot, a soup dish served that night. Prospective employers for the students include the
Westin Bonaventure, the Beverly Wilshire and Flying Food Group, a caterer for international
airlines and retailers. With nearly 250 available hospitality positions available through LAHTA
in early March, EWDD and LAHTA will continue working together to find and train candidates
looking to find roles in the region’s growing leisure and hospitality industry.

Abrehet Seifu and her husband walked into the HTA’s office at Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica in September of 2016. Her husband, who is a current City of Santa Monica maintenance worker responsible for beach sanitation, had heard mention of the program. It wasn’t, however, until he saw a flyer about the HTA posted in the building where he lives that he encouraged his wife, Abrehet, to reach out to us for services.

During one of the HTA’s initial meetings with the couple, they shared that Abrehet had been a victim of human trafficking by a relative in New York who brought her there from Ethiopia and forced her to work in virtual slavery, caring for the family’s children. In 2008, she was able to get away and eventually made her way to

California. She now lives in Santa Monica’s Pico Neighborhood in a Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM) affordable housing unit with her husband and her four children, who range in age from 1 to 7 years old.

Abrehet’s formal education stopped at the 8th grade and her English language skills, although progressively getting better, were extremely limited at the time when she first came to the HTA. In addition, as the majority of Abrehet’s time, up until now, had solely been spent caring for her children, she had little to no understanding of the American labor market. Despite all of this, she was extremely determined to do whatever she could to find employment right away, as her family greatly needed the supplemental income this would bring. Knowing this, Abrehet’s HTA case managers made immediate plans to assist her. This included helping her apply for local entry-level jobs that would allow her to gain work experience and build her resume. While this approach did lead to a few companies expressing some initial interest in her, Abrehet was having difficulty ever making it beyond the interview stage. Not one to be deterred, the longer Abrehet searched for a job, the stronger her resolve to succeed grew. Continuing to work with her Case Manager she was assisted in submitting an application for a Room Attendant to a new hotel, the Courtyard Santa Monica, that was scheduled to open in 2017. As the HTA was aware that this hotel was willing to consider hiring people with little-to-no experience in the industry, program staff knew this would be a perfect opportunity for Abrehet. An application was immediately submitted, and staff began working intensively with her to hone her interviewing skills. Our hard work paid off, as in early January 2017, was called into interview and offered a job on the spot. She is now working at the hotel, as a part-time Room Attendant, and is overjoyed to be bringing in some much needed extra income for her family. Further, as the workers at the hotel have voted to unionize, Abrehet is now a member of UNITE HERE Local 11 and, therefore, able to access the full support and benefits that come with union membership.

Here’s the story of how a union helped a company

That one simple act had ramifications well beyond embellishing a sandwich, which looked delicious: job readiness; opportunities for underemployed city minorities; union growth; union relevance; schools serving communities; employer savings on training; plus a crew of cooks, servers, bartenders, and dishwashers ready to work at a new Philadelphia International Airport restaurant.

Lots loaded onto that sandwich.

“To me, it’s a new start,” Roundtree said this week. As a teenager, he got into trouble. As a young father-to-be, he wants a career built on his passion for cooking. “It’s fun. It tastes good, and it keeps me occupied.”

CLEM MURRAY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Wearing a black cap, Penny Greenberg, 62, the head of the culinary program at Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School, conducts a training program sponsored by hospitality union Unite Here as students gather around the stove.

On Tuesday, 75 graduates of the first class of the Unite Here Philadelphia Hospitality Academy will be honored at City Hall. Students range in age and capability from recent high school graduates such as Roundtree, a novice, to longtime chef and manager Anthony Cunningham, 53, who was laid off from his job at a Japanese restaurant in June.

“I’ve put in resumes, but I can’t afford to wait for a vacancy,” Cunningham said.

Unite Here Local 274, which represents hotel and food service workers, partnered with Philadelphia’s community-schools program and the city’s workforce-development program to deliver food service workers armed with industry certificates and training in customer service and skills to Philly Concession Enterprises (PCE), a unionized company that operates airport restaurants.

“The nice thing about this project is that it’s really employer-demand driven,” said Patrick Clancy, chief executive of Philadelphia Works, the quasi-government organization that distributes government and private workforce-development dollars. Philadelphia Works provided $48,000 from a Walmart Foundation grant to underwrite the $65,000 program, with $5,000 from from the union’s newly organized employer/worker joint training fund.

The $65,000 covered instructors, professional knives for the chefs-in-training, textbooks, even the beer needed for the beer-battered fried onion rings that Roundtree and his classmates cooked Tuesday. It also covered fees for three industry certifications: ServSafe for hygienic food handling and two others for alcohol. The students were not paid, but they will have the certificates, which could easily cost $150 or more to obtain on their own.

Unlike many training programs, which don’t lead directly to jobs, “this investment yielded jobs directly for the people,” Clancy said. “They’ll go to work, they’ll be part of the union, and they are also using the city’s career and technology schools. That’s a model we’d like to see in the other schools. We think it’s a nice fit with what the employer wants and what the union is trying to build.”

The cooks start at $12.25 an hour, up to $13.35 in April, and dishwashers, cashiers, and other hourly employees will earn $11.25, then $12.25, with vacations, health insurance, and schedules set by seniority.

CLEM MURRAY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERShannon Turner, 27, a former dietary aide in a nursing home, works on making onion rings.

Courses for servers, cashiers, hosts, and dishwashers lasted for two to three days. The cooks had two weeks’ training.

“We see unionizing service-sector work, and specifically hospitality work, as key to ending poverty and racial and economic injustice in Philadelphia,” said Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of Local 274. “This program is an important example of how there can be a partnership between unions and employers.”

In Los Angeles, Unite Here and union hoteliers jointly train 1,200 hotel workers yearly, said Adine Forman, director of that city’s Hospitality Training Academy. “Hospitality is our most vibrant sector — 40 hotels are being built now,” she said. Hotel companies ask her to find and train workers. “We go to the churches, the YWCAs.”

It’s not inevitable that hotels become unionized, but it’s typical, with employer neutrality for elections, she said.

Khalil Yaacoub, operations manager for PCE’s restaurants at Philadelphia International Airport, said the partnership saved the company more than $100 per new employee. For example, PCE could spend $135 per employee for the ServSafe certificate, but Tuesday’s graduates will already be certified.

Yaacoub said 450 candidates applied for 90 jobs at Bar Symon, coming through CareerLink, the union, and Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. Yaacoub chose the most qualified, and the union prescreened them for airport background checks. “Usually, it would have taken a few people to do this job — screening, interviewing, and filling out paperwork,” he said.

As cooks roasted peppers Tuesday, Toni Damon, Dobbins’ principal, sat on a kitchen chair watching. Home school for the project, Dobbins, in North Philadelphia, is part of Mayor Kenney’s community-schools initiative, designed to turn schools into resource hubs for their neighborhoods.

In North Philadelphia, jobs are the missing resource.

The idea, Unite Here program coordinator Ryan Nissim-Sabat said, is to “have a pipeline from the poorest neighborhoods to good union jobs.”

“The union has been great,” Damon said. “They know what’s current in the industry.” Her school, which offers culinary arts, is undergoing a $37 million renovation, so the program borrowed Strawberry Mansion High School’s kitchen.

POMONA >> Horses and fast cars have long been part of the history of Fairplex.

Automotive “trials of speed” were on the mind of the founders of the L.A. County Fair and were written into the Los Angeles County Fair Association’s articles of incorporation, said Dale Coleman, vice president of sales and creative programing at Fairplex.

Horses and various equine activities have also been closely connected to Fairplex for decades and those who have long been involved in some aspect of breeding, training, showing or owning horses said recently the animals deserve to have a greater presence at Fairplex.

Both matters were among four topics discussed Thursday during two brainstorming sessions at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center. The sessions are part of the Fair Association’s strategic planning process, an exercise designed to help craft a vision for the future of Fairplex. Crafting the vision comes as the 100th anniversary of the first L.A. County Fair approaches.

When it comes to horses, Fairplex is a place that is well suited for equine programs and activities, said Scott Dunn, a member of Cal Poly Pomona President’s Arabian Advisory Committee.

“Fairplex is a very versatile campus,” Dunn said.

Over the years, Fairplex moved away from some horse activities, but they can be brought back, he said.

“Why not have a world class horse show facility?” Dunn asked.

California has the second largest horse population in the country, he said. Members of the public, particularly parents, are looking for wholesome activities to take part in as a family. If Fairplex increased its equine shows, families will turn out, Dunn said.

“You bring every major breed and discipline and show Southern California what horses are about,” he said.

Dr. Babak Faramarzi, a veterinary surgeon on the faculty of Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine said the potential exists to create partnerships between the University’s veterinary program and Fairplex.

Equine programs and activities could be a source of revenue, but “it’s not only about money, it’s about the future,” Faramarzi said.

Working with horses provides opportunities for many people outside of veterinary medicine students, he said.

Young people who work with horses will find a path that leads them away from negative behavior and exposes them to career and vocational opportunities they may not have considered, Faramarzi said.

When it comes to horse racing, the question that has to be asked is what is the general population’s interest in such a sport, he said.

In 2014, the decision was made to end thoroughbred horse racing at Fairplex. Several factors were involved in the decision including the legalization of off-site wagering which hurt horse racing attendance at Fairplex, Santana said.

That’s because “you don’t have to come to the venue to wager,” he said.

Still, in general, have “been a part of our history and we want it to be part of Fairplex’s future,” Santana said.

Automotive sports, in its many forms, have been part of Fairplex for many decades.

Fairplex personnel created a video using film footage and photographs that gave a history of automotive sports and Fairplex’s connection to the automobile.

Stock car racing and youth drag racing were once held on the Fairplex grounds. Professional racing, such as the National Hot Rod Association Winternationals, have been and continue to be an integral part of Fairplex.

But beyond that, Fairplex is also a place where car enthusiasts can show others how they can turn an old car into automotive art.

Fairplex is also a place where teens and young adults can acquire or bolster skills at one of many Fairplex-based educational programs such as the Alex Xydias Center for Automotive Arts at Fairplex. The skills can give youth an edge when they enter the job market.

They are also the skills of a craftsman.

“Craftsmanship is a lot of different things,” said Kathy Wadham, director of creative programing at Fairplex. Craftsmanship could mean inventing something, but “it could be about taking a car apart and putting it back together,” she said.

Craftsmanship can involve the culinary arts or jewelry making, and it can earn someone a blue ribbon at the Fair or it can lead to entrepreneurial opportunities.

Job opportunities and developing the workforce is something that is also part of Fairplex, said Holly Reynolds, interim director of The Learning Centers at Fairplex.

Programs such a the Career and Technical Education Center, or CTEC, and Fairplex’s partnerships with local school districts and the San Antonio Regional Occupational Program give young people a way to acquire skills that lead to well paid jobs and career pathways, she said.

Fairplex also has worked with union organizations for years and works with more than nine different labor groups, Reynolds said.

Francis Engler is a board member of the Hospitality Training Academy and director of Unite Here!, a labor union that represents workers from various industries including hotels, casinos, stadiums, food service and apparel factories.

The nonprofit Hospitality Training Academy provides “intensive training in the craft of hospitality” which can lead to long term, middle class jobs, Engler said.

People who go through the training leave with skills and “land in jobs that change lives,” he said.

Among those attending the brainstorming session was Pomona City Councilman Robert Torres who said he was pleased to see the participation of organized labor in the session.

He added that when Fairplex finds itself looking to fill job openings it should think of local residents.

“There has to be a local hiring component,” Torres said.

Pomona resident Joshua Swodeck said Fairplex should consider integrating the arts into some of its programs. The arts can lead to the development of additional jobs skills that can help people when they need to move into a different occupation.

“When the economy shifts, lots of people have a hard time making a shift,” he said.

Others suggested building relationships with various educational institutions that will lead to job training opportunities.

Some suggested creating makerspace, places where people can access tools and other equipment where they can take ideas and designs and turn them into prototypes for products.

Fairplex can be a place where people find a career.

“I think the most important message we heard is people need more than a job. They are looking for a career,” Santana said.

Fairplex, Santana said, may be able to assist those starting out as entrepreneurs by providing space where they can have use of a desk, office equipment and meeting space for a business meeting instead of having to pay for an office and office equipment.

Having such a space makes it easier for someone starting a business to control costs but have resources needed to do their job, Santana said.

In a historic collaboration, LA’s Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) has teamed with UNITE HERE Local 11, the hospitality worker’s union, and management of the soon-to-open InterContinental Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles to meet and hire prospective staff. Seeing this level of outreach in the community was inspiring. The hotel plans to hire at least 550 union jobs with healthcare, pensions and other benefits. The new 900-room hotel will be the largest InterContinental in the Americas.

Congratulations to Antoinette (former Century Plaza worker) for her new job as an Culinary Instructor for Children!

In May, 2015, the City of Los Angeles’ Workforce Development Board (WDB) awarded the Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) an “Upskilling Initiative” Grant of $100,000, as part of their vision to prevent mass layoffs and also participate in President Obama’s UpSkill American Initiative, led by the White House and the Aspen Institute. This funding allowed UNITE HERE Local 11’s 162 workers at the Concourse Hotel at LAX to elevate the service they provide to guests as part of a $60 million modernization to a Hyatt Regency Hotel. The ESL classes are among the 60 classes that have already transpired in the hotel, made possible with the City’s financial support to the HTA and its partners, UNITE HERE Local 11 and the management from The Concourse Hotel.

On March 31, 2016, The Concourse Hotel held its first English as a Second Language (ESL) graduation consisting of 24 Room Attendants. The guest speakers included:

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin

Charlie Woo, Chair of the Los Angeles City Workforce Development Board

The Honorable Jan Perry, General Manager, City of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development Department

The Hospitality Training Academy developed the trainings around Hyatt Regency standards to help hotel employees improve their services to guests, including ESL, culinary training, ServSafe training, TiPS Safe Alcohol Service, and customer service trainings.

Margarita Mendoza, a hotel employee since 2003, stated, “I am extremely grateful for my job at the Concourse Hotel. I feel blessed and beyond satisfied that I am finally learning English. I never attended school, or even sat in a classroom as a child. I did not know how to read or write well. Up until this class, I never participated in any learning experience.”

Gregg Irish, Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles stated “A skilled, empowered workforce is crucial to the growth and success of our city, as our airports and surrounding hotels make critical first impressions on the millions of travelers that visit us each year.”

Coverage:

Ask Joseph and he will tell you outright, “hospitality is not just learned, but rather it is something innate that exists inside you.” Accordingly, Joseph has always strived to practice what his mother taught him…to be a gentleman and treat people the way you yourself want to be treated.

Born in the remote town of Linden, Texas, where the homes were equipped not with bathrooms but with outhouses, and the nearest neighbors were so far away you could fire off a shot gun and no one would hear it, Joseph, an African-American gentleman now in his fifties, was no stranger to hardship growing up. Raised by a single mother and the youngest of 12, Joseph never knew his paternal father and lost two of his siblings, one of whom died in early childhood when he was just an infant himself. When Joseph was just three, his family moved from Texas to California and settled in Pomona. A true pillar and a rock, his mom (affectionately known as “Granny Goose”) worked hard, doing domestic work and whatever she could to maintain the house. At age nine, Joseph’s mom remarried and shortly after that his step father took him under his wing and gave him his first job, painting houses to help support the family. It was from his mom and his step dad that Joseph attributes his strong work ethic today.

As a young man, Joseph attended the College of Siskiyous in Weed, CA, near Mt. Shasta, and graduated with a degree in business management. Shortly thereafter, the first of his children were born and the dynamics of Joseph’s life changed completely. Needing to do what had to be done to get by, provide for his family and keep his kids in school, Joseph found himself moving in a lot of different directions career-wise over the years. This included working as a cardiology technician for Cigna Health Plan and Kaiser Permanente, providing administrative support for a law firm, and even opening up his own business, Re-Con Decorating — a clean-up company for interior and exterior construction projects for residential and commercial properties that he operated on and off throughout the years. In the midst of all of this, however, Joseph was also struggling with alcohol abuse and this led to what he terms as “the start of his downfall” and some very hard times. In October of 2003, though, Joseph made a conscience decision to take back control of his life. He joined AAA, and since that day 12 years ago, has not had another drink. Determined now to be a beacon of hope to others going through similar hardships, Joseph focused his efforts on running his business, Re-Con Decorating, full-time. Sadly, despite all of his work, hard times fell on Joseph again; and, with the untimely death of his daughter, which took a great toll on him physically, emotionally and financially, he found himself in need of public assistance.

It was during this time that Joseph learned about the Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) and its Room Attendant Training Program. Joseph was working with a social worker at the welfare office but had exhausted all of his resources and was actively looking for a job. That’s when, during one of his regular meetings, the social worker pulled a flyer off a bulletin board announcing an upcoming information and recruitment session to be held by the HTA at Watts Labor Community Action Center (WLCAC), one of Los Angeles City’s WorkSource Centers. As the program seemed to touch on the things Joseph loved most — fixing things and creating and helping others, Joseph’s interest was peaked and he decided to go to WLCAC to check out the HTA program for himself. It was there that he enrolled in the WLCAC WorkSource Center, met Cathy Youngblood, a long-time Room Attendant at the Hyatt Andaz, an organizer for the UNITE HERE Local 11 labor union, and one of the HTA’s Training Instructors. That did the trick. He was instantly sold on the program and wanted in; and. although there were well over a hundred applicants for the class, Joseph made it his business to campaign hard for a spot in the program. His efforts paid off. In April 2015, Joseph took his place as one of the first 20 students in the HTA’s inaugural Room Attendant Training Class. The intensive 3-week program, which met Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., trained Joseph on the many ins and outs of working in the housekeeping department of a busy, high-end union hotel. Learning from industry insiders with real job experience, he gained the insights needed to successfully find employment and launch a career in hospitality. As part of the class, Joseph really distinguished himself as a leader: making it a point to show up early to class each day ready and willing to learn; asking questions and doing whatever was requested of him; taking advantage of any opportunity to interact with the instructors and offer assistance to his fellow students; and making it a point to introduce himself and let it be known to hotel management and human resource executives visiting the class that he wanted a job as a Room Attendant at their property and was willing to do whatever it took to break into the industry and work for them.

Exuding great customer service, confidence and a winning attitude, Joseph succeeded at impressing everyone he met. Accordingly, within a few short weeks of graduating the program, he was hired as a Room Attendant by The Beverly Hilton Hotel in June, 2015. While Joseph reports that the work of being responsible for cleaning 11 rooms a day in all forms of disarray has been among some of the most physically challenging work he has ever been asked to do, he reports that the HTA prepared him well for the job and, over time, has grown more and more comfortable at work, is taking on more responsibilities and is becoming increasingly proficient at his job.

To date, Joseph has been working at the hotel for six months. He is now a full fledged UNITE HERE Local 11 union member, making a good union wage, and has full health and dental coverage for himself and his family. He is proud that he is learning something every day and his hard work and sacrifices over the years are definitely paying off as. In October, 2015, Joseph was promoted to the position of Houseman.

A true favorite among guests and a real team player, Joseph has been commended by the hotel for his etiquette and manner in dealing with guests. In fact, at a recent staff meeting, Joseph’s supervisor shared a complimentary letter that management received from an older woman who was staying at the hotel and wanted to thank Joseph for taking the time to help her open up some cosmetic bottles that she was having trouble. Joseph’s Supervisor was quick to point out that housemen usually do not get this particular kind of recognition and that this was a big deal and something that the entire department needed to stop and take note of. To Joseph, it was another affirmation that if you treat people the way they wanted to be treated, you will be treated well in return.

There is no doubt that Joseph represents the epitome of hospitality and he has big ambitions for himself within his new career. Through hard work and a winning attitude, Joseph is confident that he will continue to prove his abilities over time and show hotel management that he can fit within and open many doors at Hilton Worldwide, even possibly filling a role for the company nationally or internationally. A true mover and shaker, the HTA believes Joseph is well on his way.

LA’s Hospitality Training AcademyAttending White House Summit

LOS ANGELES – On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, the Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) will participate in a White House summit focused on the need to “upskill” America’s workforce. The summit will feature a diverse group of stakeholders, including members of both the business and labor communities, that are helping workers train to get ahead. HTA, UNITE HERE Local 11’s training fund, has been recognized for its best practices in working to upskill America’s frontline hospitality and food service workers.

“Upskilling”—the expansion of economic opportunity for America’s frontline, low-wage workers through skills training—enables workers to advance their careers, receive promotions, earn more for their family, and become larger contributors to their local economy.

In conjunction with attending the summit, the HTA has partnered with the soon-to-become Hyatt Regency Hotel LAX to upskill 150 members of its current workforce plus train 50 new employees, the first upskill hotel project in a long line of potential large-scale renovations being proposed in Los Angeles in the coming years.

After nine years in a LAX restaurant, Evelyn Foster faced unemployment when her concession was closed as the airport underwent a $4.11 billion modernization. She entered the Hospitality Training Academy where she and her co-workers were taught the skills they needed to raise the bar and win jobs and promotions at the airport’s new, higher-end concessions.

As airport concessions switch from fast food to fine dining, and hotels and stadiums remodel and upscale, the HTA ensures that union members, who are largely immigrants and/or people of color, are prepared to take the next step, securing higher wages and job security. With established training programs in several major cities, and new ones forming in cities like Washington DC, UNITE HERE local unions and participating employers are working to meet the needs of members, their families, and their communities.

WHAT: White House Summit on Upskilling America’s Workforce

WHEN: April 24 from 10 AM to 3 PM

MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Adine Forman of the Hospitality Training Academy (adine.forman@lahta.org, 310-597-1898) is available for interviews during the following times:

• April 23rd from 5 – 10 PM ET

• April 24th from 8 – 9:30 AM and 3:30 – 9 PM ET

The Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) a non-profit organization and a labor-management/Taft-Hartley Fund serving and providing training benefits to employers, the union and its members. The HTA is designed to improve Southern California’s hospitality, food service, and tourism industry sector by increasing the skill level of its workforce. Training is provided for both new hires entering the sector and current/incumbent workers seeking promotions through improved job skills and work experience.

LOS ANGELES, California, December 17, 2013 –The Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) is thrilled to announce that the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), has been selected as a finalist in the Reimagine: Opportunity, a national competition seeking innovative ideas to improve the lives of survivors of modern-day slavery in the United States. The HTA is a funded partner in this grant proposal.

Reimagine: Opportunity is sponsored by the Partnership for Freedom, a public-private partnership led by Humanity United, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation.

CAST’s initiative, The Networked Survivor, is a plan for creating powerful professional and social networks resulting in career opportunities for survivors of human trafficking in some of Los Angeles’ largest industries: tourism, hospitality, entertainment, beauty and health. CAST’s idea was selected from among more than 160 submissions representing 260 applying organizations from around the country.

In January, CAST, the HTA and other partners will join 12 other finalists at an Innovation Workshop in Washington, DC, where specialists in technology, social enterprise, communications and media will meet with us. In the spring, the winners will be announced, with prize grants totaling $1.8 million.

CAST Executive Director and CEO Kay Buck says, “Survivors of human trafficking are some of the most entrepreneurial and hard-working people I know. However, because of a variety of complex factors, they are often held back from moving forward in achieving their education and career goals. Celebrating its 15th year serving survivors, CAST is boldly stepping into its next era as a catalyst of collective impact and shared leadership with new players who bring diverse expertise, resources and economic opportunities for survivors to the table. “

With survivors as our advisors, CAST has joined forces with Hospitality Training Academy (the Taft-Hartley Funded training arm of the UNITE HERE Local 11 Labor Union in Los Angeles’ high-growth tourism and hospitality industry), Paul Mitchell Schools and UEvolution to provide quality training and sustainable career opportunities that lead to economic empowerment.”

HTA Executive Director Adine Forman shares, “CAST gathered its most diverse, creative and networked partners to envision how we can collectively transform economic opportunities for survivors. There are abundant opportunities, but there currently exists a lack of networks and connections preventing survivors from accessing them. With the HTA, we can work to pipeline CAST clients into secure, living wage union jobs with career advancement opportunities into the hospitality/tourism/food service sector.”

ABOUT HTAThe Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) provides training for new hires or current/incumbent workers looking for promotions through improved job skills and work experience. The HTA is designed to improve Los Angeles’ tourism and hospitality industry by increasing the skill level of its workforce. The HTA provides courses specifically tailored to increase workers’ skills in a variety of areas, including culinary/cook, server, dishwasher, busser, bartender, barista, housekeeping, host/hostess, cashier, retail sales/customer service and Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL). For more information, please visit our website at www.lahta.org.

About CAST

For over 15 years, CAST has championed a comprehensive, survivor-centered approach to combatting human trafficking. CAST provides trafficking survivors with a continuum of life-transforming services: a 24-hour emergency response system; legal services; social services; and a survivor leadership program. Through this intensive work in the trenches, CAST holds a unique perspective that has catalyzed innovative partnerships. With these strategic relationships in place, CAST is boldly stepping into its next era as an agent of shared leadership and collective impact with new players to unveil The Networked Survivor, a plan for creating powerful career paths and networks for survivors of human trafficking. For more information, please visit: www.castla.org.

About Partnership for Freedom

The Partnership for Freedom is a public-private partnership that was first announced by President Obama during his landmark speech on human trafficking in September 2012. It is led by Humanity United, a foundation dedicated to building peace and advancing human freedom, and the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Goldman Sachs10,000 Women initiative and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation.